Boxed Memories
by BerLina
Summary: Kate finally moves into the loft, and brings something along that leads to unexpected situations...Fun Smutty Established Caskett story, fits in with the Ignition/Crossroads AU
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This takes place a couple of days after the last chapter of Crossroads, but you don't really need to have read that to be able to enjoy this story ;)_

_This is going to turn pretty steamy pretty soon, so be warned._

**Boxed Memories**

* * *

><p>Rick didn't have to search for her; she'd left the door open. He simply followed his ears.<p>

He found her on the floor in the guest room, the room that would be her office, a clutter of opened and unpacked boxes sitting around her as she strummed the chords of an old folk song on her guitar.

He stopped in the doorway, smiled at her as she poked the tip of her tongue out in concentration, her fingers a little cramped on the strings.

She let the last chord fade away and looked up at him; he hadn't been quiet enough for her to not notice him. Her smile was shy, a little nervous even - he'd never been allowed to see her play. He'd stumbled across the pretty guitar with the unusual sideways cutout one day in April, but she'd refused to play for him.

"You still surprise me" he told her softly, something akin to pride in his voice. "Every time I think I've got you figured out, you do something unexpected."

He could see the struggle in her eyes as she tried to keep from blushing, and he grinned, pleased with himself, as he pushed away from the doorframe and stepped closer.

"I'm almost done in here" she said and reached out to touch his leg when he was close enough. He dropped down to her level, crouching at her side, her hand on his knee keeping him balanced.

"Mm" he murmured approvingly, his fingers travelling up her shoulder to her neck. He didn't lean in to kiss her, and he probably would have toppled over if he'd tried, but his thumb brushed her cheek in a gesture as tender as any kiss could be.

"How'd your meeting go?" she asked softly and he grimaced in response.

"As expected" he said and she let her fingers draw circles on his thigh, both comfort and pity.

He loved that she was so touchy lately. Ever since she'd realized how much he feared for her life, how scared he was every time she went out to catch bad guys and how badly he needed her physical contact, the proof that she was alive and well, she'd allowed herself to give in to her urges to touch him more often.

His gaze flickered away from her eyes to a spot behind her back, focusing on the only box she hadn't unpacked yet.

"What's in that box over there?" he asked and huffed like an old man as he stood up and reached for it. Kate turned, followed his line of sight, and couldn't stop her jaw from dropping. Oh god. Not THAT box. This was exactly why she had wanted to do this whole unpacking thing on her own. She rushed to put the guitar down and scrambled to her feet.

"Uh...nothing. Just girl stuff, nothing interesting" she tried to distract him, but she didn't even buy the lie herself. "I'm just going to put that over there and then we can..."

"Oh no!" he laughed. "I know a lie when I see one!" He grabbed the medium sized box and held it out of her reach.

When he slid the lid off, his eyes almost jumped out of his head.

"You...this...you have...oh god..."

He couldn't produce any coherent words, looking down into the box full of sex toys in his hands.

Kate had blushed a crimson red.

"I...they're just...Uhh..." She didn't really have an explanation for those.

She squeezed her eyes shut to calm her erratic heart, feeling like a young embarrassed girl in front of a class of staring eyes.

Except that those items in the box in his arms were perfectly normal when you were a healthy woman living alone, and she shouldn't have to feel so embarrassed about them. Her blush subsided a little and she managed to look up into his eyes. She could see that he wasn't judging her, wasn't making fun of her or leering like he would have a couple of years ago when he was still a different man.

He still hadn't said anything, but when she reached out to take the box from him and store it somewhere Alexis would never, ever, find it, he didn't let go of it. Her eyes shot up and found his.

"Will you let me use them?" he asked, no hint of humor in his voice. The blush came back with full force.

"You want to..."

"They obviously help you to..."

Neither of them finished their sentences. He stepped a little closer and she glanced down to the ground, the toys and the question suspended in the air between them.

"Rick, I…"

The distinct sound of Alexis' door clicking open down the hallway startled them away from each other, and Kate let go of the box in Rick's hands. He quickly put it down, hidden between two bubble wraps, and she closed her eyes briefly to control her blush, thankful in a way for the diversion.

They heard footsteps advance, and then the soft knock of knuckles against the open door.

"Kate?" came the tentative voice of Alexis. "Can I- Oh, hi Dad!" she said and smiled, a little surprised and not quite able to cover it up.

"Hey pumpkin" he greeted, glancing down once more to make sure that the box was closed up.

"What is it, come in!" Kate invited, a gentle warmth in her voice as she beckoned the girl with her hands to join them. Alexis ducked into the room, her hair braided on one side of her head, her bright blue eyes skillfully lined with just a hint of black and colour.

"Hey" she greeted friendly and smiled at the both of them.

"Um…" she started and Rick raised his eyebrows. "I know Kate is moving today and we wanted to celebrate, but…"

She fiddled with the seam of her blue top. "That…that boy I told you about, from the orientation day at Princeton, Nicholas…" she smiled shyly at Kate and Rick turned around to watch his girlfriend, who grinned back with sparkling eyes, seeming to know exactly what his daughter was talking about. He gasped incredulously, then shook his head at Alexis.

"You told Kate about it and not me?" he whined and then leveled a glare at Kate that she didn't quite buy.

"And you" he growled, trying to sound as convincingly pouting as he could. "You're keeping secrets from me now?"

Kate laughed at his demeanor, which was admittedly a little bit cute.

"Us girls have to stick together, Castle" she said and patted his cheek. "Don't take it too personal."

Alexis giggled, but then swallowed and dimmed her smile a bit. "So…are you okay if I go now, Kate? You won't be mad that I'm missing our special dinner night?"

Kate shook her head. "Of course not, Alexis. You should go, have fun, relax with Nick" she winked.

Rick was still pouting. "But not too much fun" he grumbled. "Where are you meeting this guy anyway?"

Alexis blushed. "He's taking me to a Broadway show but he wouldn't say which one."

"Hmphh" Rick snorted. "A guy that likes singing and dancing can't - Ouch!" he protested as Kate hit him, hard, her fist to his bicep.

"Shut up, you love Musicals!" Kate gasped, then laughed along with his daughter.

"Dad, I'll be fine" she assured him, still giggling. "I'll be home by midnight."

Kate looked down at her father's watch and gave Alexis a knowing grin. It wasn't even four in the afternoon. Oh well. Rick sighed.

"Alright, pumpkin. You go ahead, I'm sure Kate and I can find something else to do."

Kate blushed deeply, and Alexis turned her gaze away. "Thanks, Dad" she muttered and started for the door, turning around one last time when she was in the hallway, hesitantly looking up at the woman that would from now on officially share her home.

"Go, Alexis. We'll have that dinner on your next free day, okay?" Kate tried to reassure the girl, not wanting her to leave with the burden of a bad conscience. Alexis smiled.

"Sure, I'd love that. Thanks. For…you know. Thanks." She chanced a quick look at her dad, who was watching them with a suspicious interest. "Have a nice night, you two" Alexis bid them goodbye, and then she was gone.

Rick turned around, his eyes narrowing in on Kate's. "Is there anything I need to know?"

Kate shook her head. "Just girl stuff. If it would concern you, I'd tell you." When he still didn't quite stop pouting, she sighed.

"I promise."

He grinned from ear to ear. "Pinkie promise?" he asked eagerly but Kate huffed a laugh at him.

"No, Castle, I'm not letting you shake my pinkie as if we're some pre-school girls in pink dresses!"

He wriggled his eyebrows, clearly not at all insulted by her suggestion. "Any nice outfits in that box of yours?"

Kate blushed. Oh god. He wasn't going to stop, was he? She took a step back from him, crossing her arms in front of her body.

"Rick, I…"

His hands closed gently around her wrists, sliding forwards until he could intertwine their fingers, tugging her into his chest. His face was earnest now, a glint of want still in his eyes, but all cocky playfulness gone.

"Kate, you know I won't make you do anything you're not comfortable with."

She swallowed around the thickness of her throat and nodded. "I know, Rick."

His thumbs brushed across her palms. "I love you. If you can't…Whether we do this or not, it doesn't change a thing."

She nodded again, understanding, trusting him. "I don't think I can-" she started, then shook her head. "I wish I could, but I'm not sure if…I mean."

Dammit. She trusted him. She loved him, was moving in with him, planned on spending her entire life with this man. She swallowed once more and straightened up, her fingers gripping his, strong and confident. He could watch her resolve change, could watch her steel herself, her spine straightening, her forehead smoothing out. A glimmer appeared in her eyes that hadn't been there. Her cheeks were still reddened by the faintest blush, but she was smiling now.

"Okay" she said at last, sounding more like the Detective Beckett he'd flirted with a long time ago, than the vulnerable Kate he'd only discovered after time.

"Just remember" she said, lifting up on her toes so her face was level with his, letting her nose just barely brush his. Hot puffs of air teased his lips when she spoke.

"You asked for it."


	2. Chapter 2

"I…" he muttered against her lips. "You sure?"

She chuckled and let her mouth trail over his. "I'm sure. Think you can handle it, stud?"

His eyes were glazed over and heavy-lidded, his mouth hanging open, paralyzed. She nibbled playfully on his lower lip, and he blinked several times before he could respond.

"You never call me stud" he croaked after she pulled away, sucking on his jaw instead.

She pressed herself against his chest, humming. "Better earn the title."

Rick swallowed. He wanted to throw back something witty, charming even, but her tongue was wicked against his neck and his brain was starting to lose focus, so all he managed was a grin.

* * *

><p><em>"I want you" he murmured in a low, incredibly arousing rasp against her hot skin.<br>__"I need you" he added, even lower, barely more than a breathy moan. She cried out when his teeth closed around her nipple.  
><em>_"Say something in Italian" he demanded as he unzipped her pants and dragged them down her endless legs, soothing her skin with his hands as he went._

_"Ti voglio…ti voglio bene" she breathed and it meant 'I want you', 'I need you' and 'I love you' all at once._

* * *

><p>His hands found her hips, slid under her shirt, upwards on her hot skin but stopping abruptly when his gaze fell on the open door behind her. Her short nails scratched lightly at his collarbone, the tip of her tongue teasing his throat.<p>

"What?" she murmured when he didn't react, and he reluctantly pulled away so he could look at her face.

"Alexis" he said and licked his lips, as if remembering her taste, capturing and savoring it. "Let's…until she's out of the house. Wouldn't want her to hear you scream."

Kate laughed, startled.  
>"I'm not screaming" she insisted.<p>

"Oh, but you will" he gleamed and she sucked her bottom lip into her mouth.

"I won't" she tried to assure him, but it fell flat because her voice hitched as his knuckles trailed from her hip across her stomach. She swallowed thickly, clearly more affected by his touch than she was willing to let on.

"Alexis" she repeated meekly. He nodded, but didn't stop the rousing motion of his hands. He leaned forward and kissed her cheekbone, right below her eye, gentle and soft and so, so damn mischievously innocent that she shivered at the teasing contrast, at the feelings rushing through her body.

It reminded her of a sizzling elevator ride more than half a year ago. It was just before the first time they'd had sex, after a ridiculously delicious date in a restaurant of complete darkness that had heightened their senses and boiled their blood until the tension had been simply unbearable. The result of said overdue date had been three rounds of breathtaking sex in one night, desperate against a wall in her apartment and on her couch, slower once they'd made it to her bed, lazy and sated and tired but unwilling to stop, his socks still on his feet.

* * *

><p><em>"Do that again" he said throatily and she gulped at the sexiness of it.<em>

_"Do what?" she queried, her blood already heating up again.  
>"Laugh like that" he answered and the absurdity of his request had her laughing indeed. The moment the rumble spilled from her lips he shut her up with his mouth, turning her laugh once again into a yearning sigh.<em>

* * *

><p>Images of that night - and the many that followed – suddenly appeared in her mind, clouding her eyes, making her sway in his arms and arch her head upwards, her lips parting in anticipation of his soft mouth, a breathy hum leaving her throat as she-<p>

"Bye, guys!" came the youngest Castle's cheerful voice from the other end of the hallway and startled them out of their close embrace as if they had been caught with their proverbial hands in the cookie jar.

"Have a good night?" Alexis called from the top of the stairs, making it sound like a question because they still hadn't made a sound.

Kate was the first to shake her head and return to the here and now. "Goodnight, Alexis! Have Fun!"

"Night, pumpkin!" Rick added, but the only answer they received was a subdued laugh and the closing of the front door.

Silently, they looked at one another, each holding the other's heated gaze. Instead of surging forward and ravishing her, like he desperately wanted to do, Rick took a step back and reached down, grabbing the ominous box and turning towards the door.

"Bedroom" he ordered, sounding suspiciously breathy.

* * *

><p><em>"Come back" she whispered and didn't care that it sounded almost like pleading. He did what she wanted and moved into her embrace again, smiling against her mouth when she sighed happily. With more strength than she'd expected from him he lifted her up and her legs encircled his waist, holding on to him and keeping him close.<em>

* * *

><p>She caught up to him a few steps into their bedroom, and stopped him with a gentle hand to his shoulder.<p>

He turned around with darkened eyes, looking out of it. Lost in thought; in memories, maybe.

"Huh?"

His lips were bruised from her kisses, his breathing shallow and his cheeks flushed. He looked so cute, so utterly flustered and dazzled and in love with her that she forgot what she was going to say and leaned up to take his mouth in a kiss that that licked at his boiling blood like fire. The box tumbled to the floor between them and his large hands went around her, straight up her shirt, splaying the expanse of her back and crushing her into his body.

Her hips knocked into his broad frame and she swung her leg around, moaning his name as she rocked against his thigh.

* * *

><p><em>Kate gasped when he sunk down on top of her with his full weight, pressing her into the luxurious satin, enveloping her in a searing kiss. He then went on to devour the soft flesh where her shoulder joined her neck. <em>

_"Rick" she moaned when he skimmed her most sensitive area through the fabric of her panties._

* * *

><p>He stripped off her shirt and threw it across the room, then picked her up and carted her over to their bed, throwing her down so enthusiastically that she bounced on the mattress.<p>

Startled, she laughed, the breathless sound and the dazzling smile making him pause to take her in for a moment; heaving chest, flushed cheeks, glowing eyes, sweat already forming on her skin in the early summer heat.

He shook off the light jacket he'd worn for the publicist's meeting and started on the buttons of his pressed shirt, thankful that he'd gotten rid of the restricting tie a couple of hours ago.

Kate shifted onto her knees and crawled up to him, unzipping his pants just as he finished off his buttons and ripped the shirt tail out of his waistband.

"In a hurry?" she joked as he nearly tripped all over himself in the haste to get out of his clothes.

"So little time, so-" he cut himself off by kissing her, his hands cupping her cheeks as he leaned over her and forced her back into the mattress.

"So much to do" he finished, panting. She clutched at him and pulled him completely on top of her, her fingers digging into the strong muscles where his neck met his shoulders as her eyes went unfocused once more, dirty _dirty _visions flashing in her head; promises of an exhilarating night.

* * *

><p><em>When she grabbed his hair and pulled him up for a fiery kiss, he slid a finger into her wetness. Her body arched up to meet his touch and he added a second one. Then he sucked on her lip and pressed his thumb down on her clit.<em>

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><p><strong>AN: I hope you were able to follow this chapter. It's probably a little confusing until you realize that the parts in italics are flashbacks. They're taken from the mother story of this ficlet, _Ignition_. If you haven't read it, you should. Not because I asked you to, but because you might actually enjoy it ;)**

**I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter, because I'd really like to know whether it worked out for you. :)The next chapter will contain some actual smut, not just flashbacks. I just hadn't posted in a long while and even though I'm still very busy I didn't want to leave you hanging, so this is as much as I've got so far. I'll work on more as soon as I'm able to. As always, I'm doing the best I can.**

**Have a great weekend, dear Castillions! May we survive this Finale somehow...**

**Lina**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm so, so sorry for the terribly long wait. I'm not going to say it won't happen again, because I'd be making promises I couldn't possibly keep. But I really am sorry because I know how much it sucks to wait for updates, and I know not even half of you will even remember this story.  
>At least it's a short story so far, so you can re-read if you get lost ;)<strong>

**I hope you all had a fantastically awesome weekend. And week. And month. (Because seriously, it's been that long.)  
>I appreciate each and every one of you dear readers. <strong>**You rock my world.  
>Lina<strong>

* * *

><p>His smooth skin was warm against hers, stomach to stomach and chest to chest as he licked a slow teasing line down her throat, his hips cradled between her parted thighs. She was still wearing her jeans, the fabric rough and frustratingly frictional as she writhed and wriggled underneath his weight.<p>

If she could just shift a little to the right; if he'd just let her move a tiny bit upwards…right there, where the seam of her pants…yes, right there-  
>-but he pushed her back down, keeping her in place with his broad body.<p>

"Rick" she whispered, the heavy atmosphere of the bedroom somehow calling for a quiet tone.  
>He hummed against her throat, the vibrations tickling and rousing her. His fingers skidded around her waist, bare skin erupting in goose bumps and toned muscles shivering under his touch even as she tried to suppress her reactions to him. His tongue dipped into the hollow by her collarbone and she sighed, a high keening sound of need.<p>

Unfair. Just unfair, that man.

She'd already forgotten again what she was going to say.

* * *

><p><em>The world slowed around them and yet seemed to pick up speed with every connection they made. Skin on skin, flesh on exposed flesh, lips seeking sweet lips and tongues plunging into wet depths. It was ecstatic. And for lack of a better word, Rick thought, simply extraordinary.<em>

* * *

><p>Their bedroom. He still couldn't believe that this was going to be <em>their<em> bedroom now. It would belong to both of them, equal parts. The part of the bed getting more light from the window would be her side, and the other would be his. They would go to sleep in this bed every night, together, from now until… until they moved out. To a nursing home. Or a villa in the south of France. Or –

His thoughts cut off when Kate slid her small, slim hand into the back of his boxers and cupped his ass. His mouth went slack against her collarbone as his hips pressed into hers on intuition.

Damn, that woman.

He groaned and pushed himself up on his forearms to look at her, pressing his hips more firmly against her. She moaned; this had clearly been her plan all along.

Her heavy-lidded gaze travelled up his naked chest, his round neck, got stuck at his lips for a brief, wonderful second before she finished her trail and their eyes met. Her hair was spread out on his covers, _their _covers, and the evening light cast enchanting frames and forms and lines of twirling sun across her perfect skin.

She grinned, and then slid her hand around to his front.

* * *

><p><em>He gasped; her name both an expletive and a caress as it fell from his lips. She could see the muscles tense where he was holding himself above her, at the same time pressing her into the mattress as he was trying to hold back the thrusting of his hips into her hand. <em>_He wanted her. Badly._

* * *

><p>She brushed her thumb ever so lightly across his tip, her darkened eyes flirting relentlessly with his until he gave in and let his lashes flutter shut. She arched her back and pressed her breasts into his chest, keeping her grip frustratingly soft around him.<p>

"Kate" he pleaded and opened his eyes again with no small effort.  
>"You" he croaked, wet his lips, tried again. "S'about you."<p>

Clenching his jaw, he regretfully pushed himself further up, away from her touch, her smell, her enticing sexiness that lured him in. He rocked back onto his knees and dragged the flat of his palms down her stomach to her pants.

She laughed breathlessly when he couldn't quite open her button on the first try. He was usually so… hmmmm… incredibly dexterous, that it amused her whenever she could get him so unfocussed that he lost all his charming self-control.

When he finally managed the task, he peeled the dark fabric down her legs, scooting down the bed to completely rid her of it. With swift but trembling motions, her blue panties followed right after, so she was only left in her mismatched beige bra.

She'd forgotten to care about things like that a long, long time ago. In fact, when she knew they were going to get it on that night, she usually chose ordinary underwear, as he had a tendency to rip them.

* * *

><p><em>In the dim light of the bedroom, Rick was hovering above her, her warm breath mingling with his.<br>He shifted his weight to one arm and cradled her left wrist in his hand. She gasped when he looked straight into her eyes and tasted the saltiness of her skin between her thumb and her pointer finger, the way he had imagined Rook doing it in 'Heat Wave' during the tequila scene._

* * *

><p>Kate reached up and cupped Rick's cheek, brushing her thumb along the velvet skin just under his eye. He turned his head and pressed a tender kiss to her warm palm, licking a tantalizing line on her salty skin, scraping his teeth across the flesh of her thumb.<p>

"That box" he murmured and leaned back just far enough to look at her face. A blush travelled up her entire body, but this time her embarrassment was mixed with a healthy dose of arousal, too.

"Yes" she answered with a dry throat, her voice low, dark, _illegal_. Then she pushed on his chest, forced him up and away from her, the passion in her eyes a rough contrast to the sweet tenderness before. She swung her legs around and dropped from the bed, unhooking her bra with one hand and flinging it away without looking, crossing the room in powerful, naked strides.

She picked up the box – a show just for him, giving him a clear view of _everything _– and turned around. Rick had to gulp. His heart stuttered frantically as she advanced on him like a huntress, all lust and force and evil teasing eyes.

"Take it off" she ordered, gesturing with the box towards his boxers, and he hurried to fulfill her wish.

All her wishes, always.

"Scoot up" she demanded and he pushed himself up the bed until he was lying flat on his back, with his head on the pillows. He was following her command wordlessly, relinquishing the control because he knew it was what she needed right now; he knew that if he wanted to use any of the toys on her, he'd have to allow her the same first.

With dark eyes trained on him, she knocked the lid off the box and reached blindly inside. The corners of her lips twitched as her hand closed around the items she'd been looking for.

Pulling them out with a face as strict as she could manage, she growled at him.

"You've been a bad, bad boy, Richard Castle."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** _As I'm sure you've noticed, I've taken a three-month writing break. A mild case of writer's block, plus some frustration with the characters, plus the long university summer break have kept me away from pen and keyboard for a long time, but now I'm back! I hope you've all had a terrific summer, and I wish us all a fantastic new season of Castle!_

_Please enjoy! (And don't maim me for ending the chapter where I did. I'm already writing the next one...)_

_Lina_

* * *

><p>The cuff closed around his wrist with an almost obscene click; the leather was smooth and warm against his skin. He was sprawled diagonally across the bed, his naked body an "X" marking the spot; a kinky Da Vinci circle.<p>

"They open without a key," Kate formally informed him as she tugged on his arms to make sure he was secured to the bedframe.  
>"I just have to press here," she added, making sure he was watching as she explained his restraints to him, her brow knitted in concentration.<p>

Safety first.

He nodded in understanding.

"Now…" she said, satisfied with her work, the concentrated crease in her forehead smoothing out as she brushed her hands down his bare chest.  
>Her gaze flickered up and down his body and she bit her lip, closing her eyes for a brief moment. When she opened them again, they were several shades darker than he had ever seen, the highlights of the New York City streets below them dancing on her pupils like glittering orbs in the night sky, her tongue peeking out to soothe her bruised lips.<p>

A red scarf was slung across her shoulder like a waiter's towel and she tugged on it with a flourish. It snapped down, whipped across his chest, and Rick struggled out a breath between his tightly closed teeth.

She chuckled; a throaty, lovely, daring sound.  
>"Getting scared, Ricky-boy?"<p>

It was all he could do to shake his head and huff out another breath.

"Do you trust me?" she asked, sincere now, and he found her gaze and nodded.  
>"Safeword?" she whispered as she straightened the red silk in her hands and leaned forward on top of him.<br>"Apples," he choked, and she nodded solemnly before her face broke into a huge grin.

"Here's to hoping you won't use it."

And all went black around him.

* * *

><p>Her mouth is against his hip, her hand in his hair, then suddenly a wet tongue on his chest, and how did she…? How can she…? Where<em> is<em> she even? – but he can't see a thing and he can't move his hands to check where she's positioned herself and it hardly even matters because _damn_, his nervous system is screaming at him from all over the place.

She takes her time with him, but not really. Her moves are calculated but unexpected, and his need for her is building fast, fast, but she doesn't give him anything, doesn't give in, even when he grunts her name and thrusts his hips into her.

"Easy, tiger," she teases, her voice so close to his ear but everywhere in the room, and _god_, how can he be so disoriented, so insensitive all of a sudden, just because she took his sight away, his hands, his movement, and fuck her tongue is lava and he doesn't even make sense in his own head anymore.

Her knee brushes his erection and he almost weeps, needy and so far past gone that it should make him feel uncomfortable, but she knows him, knows what she's capable of doing to him, and he gives it all to her, gives himself to her. She hasn't even really touched him _there_, hasn't done anything at all that should get him this aroused this fast.

She's illegal.

He'd arrest her for it, but as it is, he's the one in handcuffs.

He can't do anything but let her torture him.

'Remember that you asked for it,' she'd warned him, and suddenly her threat makes sense.

He wouldn't change it for the world, though.

* * *

><p>It's exhilarating. She feels powerful, like a vixen, like she runs the world. Rick's body is taut beneath hers, all quivering muscles and sweat-dampened skin. He strains against the cuffs, but she knows he wouldn't want her to take pity on him, wouldn't want her to stop.<p>

He's enjoying this. His moans and sighs - and the muttered insults that she's sure he isn't even aware he's saying out loud – are telling her that he is enjoying this.

So she keeps going. Keeps giving. She tries not to bear too much of her weight on one spot of the mattress, so that it doesn't dip and give away her position, so that her next move will come out of nowhere for him.

She's enjoying this, too.

She revels in the surprised sounds he makes, the sharp intakes of air, the clenching of his muscles when she touches him there, presses here, kisses all over the place. He's so responsive that she has to fight down her own reactions, has to keep her own sounds inside, the quivers of her thighs under tight control so she can keep up the teasing.

Moisture is running down the inside of her bare leg, and she's not ashamed of it. He has the maddening capability of driving her insane, always has, in and out of bed, and she's fully aware of it. The feeling of his skin underneath her hands makes her heart speed up, the lifting and falling of his chest causes thrills to chase each other down her spine, and his sweet, tangy scent makes her head spin around and around.

His pulsing erection is inviting, unmistakably inviting, but even as she licks her lips, she closes her eyes and bends away from him.

When she opens them again, her head is clearer, more focused.

* * *

><p>"Rick?" she rasped, her voice farther from him than just a second ago.<p>

"Yes," he cried out, his throat dry, his lips swollen from his own bites.

"Do you want to come?"

He laughed a single note of mirth and desperation both.

"Yes. Yes, please."

"Then you need to make me come first" she demanded, a sensual version of her interrogation voice in place. She scratched her nails lightly across his stomach and the heat pulsed inside of him, bursting through his veins and searching for redemption, bright spots dancing in his black field of vision.

"Anything. Anything, Kate," he breathed, his arms tugging at his leather bindings once more. "How?" he struggled out. A sly smile tugged on her lips, bloomed in her eyes.

"Lay still," she instructed him.


End file.
